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Sunday, June 28, 2009

Earlier, I joined the 100 mile hike club for employees here at Mammoth Hot Springs. As of this weekend, I had a little less than 20 miles left to go. With this in mind, when Rebekah asked me to go on a 22 mile hike it actually sounded like a good idea. I was told it would be downhill the whole way!! lol So, the three of us start out towards Hellroaring trail head. We started with a spring in our step and with light hearts!

Our destination, Gardiner:

Probably 3 miles or so in, we came along an old rangers outpost.

For all those weary hikers, there was even a clean outhouse!!!!!!!Tricia, still peppy and glad to be in the outdoors:

We had little friends along the trail:

This tree had grown AROUND this elk antler:

It wasn't long before it got HOT and the sun was very intense. We kept hiking and hiking, and I guess I'll confess now, I ran out of water. We came to a nice mountain stream where I refilled my water bottles.

We hiked and hiked and hiked and hiked and hiked and hiked. Then we climbed rocks, and climbed rocks, and climbed rocks. Then we walked and walked and walked and walked. All I could think about was water.

Tricia is up ahead - not so peppy and happy:

We finally made it back. I wanted to die. Joan Kelly met us at the end with Powerade! I haven't hiked since!

Friday, June 26, 2009

We drove the Old Road to Gardiner and went to the Town Cafe for breakfast. There were so many wildflowers in bloom.

After breakfast, we headed to the geyser basins near Old Faithful. The first stop was the Fountain Paint Pots:

These were at Black Sand Basin:

We took the Fountain Lake side road and arrived just as this geyser was errupting:

As we headed back north towards Roosevelt, we stopped here at Sheepeater cliff:

On the Mammoth-Roosevelt Rd, this coyote was walking down the road. Both ears had what appeared to be stickers (I guess they were tags). An orange on his right ear and a green one on his left ear.

We checked into our cabin at Roosevelt Lodge and then drove out to Lamar Valley. Near Soda Butte, there was a large crowd of people stopped at the pull-out along the road.

We stopped, too. There were 2 wolves chasing a baby antelope!!! The mama and daddy antelope were chasing the wolves, running into and bumping the wolves a couple of time to try to distract the wolves from the baby. They would come closer to where we were standing, then run far off, then come close again as the crowd would gasp and cheer on both the antelopes and the wolves!!! It seemed as though the wolves gave up on the baby antelope - we thought the baby antelope was safe as they headed off to our right while the wolves were off to our left. But, NO!! There were two coyotes lurking in the sagebrush and attacked and killed the baby antelope.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

After breakfast at Canyon Cafeteria, we headed towards Old Faithful. Along the way, we stopped at the Artist Paintpots where the mud is boiling: Then, we drove down a little side road where there was a large bison herd. There were also two flocks of geese playing follow the leader:

We went on to Old Faithful geyser and went into the Inn for a little while. Then, we headed up to Mammoth Hot Springs and checked into the cabin. I showed James where I live and work. We drove the Upper Terrace Drive and viewed the terraces and hotsprings. Then, we went to Subway in Gardiner and got sandwiches for a picnic. Had a picnic at Lava Creek and drove out to Lamar Valley. Along the way, we took a side trip along Blacktail Plateau Drive. I'm glad we did because at the end of it, we saw a black bear:

Also, we drove down to the petrified tree:

We stopped here at Soda Butte in Lamar Valley to watch a couple of wolves out in the meadow.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

After breakfast at Granny's Family Diner, we headed back to YNP. Not sure what this building is or was, but it looked cool: As soon as we entered the park, we saw some big horns:

We drove straight to Canyon and hiked the North Rim Trail. It was gorgeous, but I forgot my camera. Then, we checked into the cabin (what a dump!) and drove thru Hayden Valley. We also stopped at the Mud Volcano and Sulphur Canyon.

Dragon's Mouth was pretty cool, which I had taken a video so you could hear it, but it really does sound like a dragon (what I imagine a dragon would sound like).